Things concerning Jews in Portland and everywhere that happen here and in Israel coming from an American-Israeli.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Who Believes in Witchcraft? Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Does

Nadene Goldfoot

Nadene Goldfoot Walt Disney's Witch in Snow White and Rose Red
The Middle East Media Institute (MEMRI) found out that one of the Ayatollah Khamenei's closest men, Mehdi Taeb, said to students on April 20, 2013 at a religious seminary in Iran that "Jews are subjecting Iranians to a trial. Jews have great powers of sorcery and they are using this. All measures against Iran are from the Zionists. The USA is one of their tools. So far, they haven't used the full scope of their sorcery against Iran yet."

Moses (1391-1271 BCE) threw his cane down and it turned into a snake and swallowed up the pharoah's snake. The belief is that G-d did that. Almost 4,000 years ago, in King Solomon's day (961-920 BCE), there were those that believed in the use of supernatural power such as witchcraft. It was a capital offence in Biblical law. Deuteronomy 18:10-11 gives us the injunction against resorting to witchcraft, divination, and other magical practices of people of that day. "When you come to the land that G-d gives you, you shall not learn to act according to the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you one who causes his son or daughter to pass through the fire, one who practices divinations, an astrologer, one who reads omens, a sorcerer; or an animal charmer, one who inquires of Ov or Yidoni, or one who consults the dead."

The traditional Jew has tended to view with suspicion anything of real or imaginary supernatural origin beyond the horizon of normal Jewish life. Any new attempts to gain contact with the spiritual world was mistrusted as an attack on the sobriety and sanity of his faith. The practice and belief were difficult to eradicate in ancient days. In and around Israel about 4,000 years ago the few using it were necromancers-those calling on spirits to tell of the future; the casting of lots and oracles and charms in connection with illness. It has shown up in medieval and post-medieval times. In America, it was thought that young women were involved in witchcraft and hung many witches in the 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. That's 400 years ago. Today in the USA, we still do have people who practice some form of witchcraft.

"In Medieval Jewish, Christian and Islamic legends (500-1500 CE) , the Seal of Solomon was a magical signet ring said to have been possessed by King Solomon. This is not a fact from the Torah. We Jews do not talk about Solomon and witchcraft. He is known to us for his wisdom and for being a great king of Israel. I was astounded that anyone would blame him for witchcraft practices. Evidently the people thought that anyone who was successful had to be using witchcraft. They couldn't imagine anyone getting anyplace without such help. Jews remark that it is his sakhel, his brains that get him places.

In the book, What Does Judaism Say About..?" witchcraft is not listed. Instead, The Evil Eye is listed. In Hebrew this is called the ayin ha-ra. It denotes simply envy of good fortune. I think this is Iran's problem. They are so envious of Israel's good fortune to have been created a state and they are determined to destroy it. We know this from their statements, their religious leaders comments and the charter of the Muslim Brotherhood. In Judaism, the evil eye had no occult significance. In the book of Proverbs (28:22) it said, "He that hath an evil eye hasteneth after riches, and knoweth not that want shall come upon him. Here, the effects are on the envious man himself. Perhaps that will mean that Iran, being the envious one, will fall on hard times, and they have with world powers coming down on them about creating nuclear weapons to use against Israel. They have been undergoing financial hard times.

What Jews use is their heads, not ever witchcraft. They are intelligent people. Many are doctors, lawyers and scientists. Jews have received 187 Nobel prizes. From 1901 to 2012, 22% of all Nobel prizes winners have been Jews, In the USA alone they have won 36% of them. The USA, which has more than 315 million people, has about 6 million Jews. Worldwide, the 14 million Jews are only 0.02% of the population.

Muslims have received 10 Nobel prizes of which 6 were just recent ones as peace prizes, like Sadat and Arafat received. There have been 2 Muslim scientists; one from Pakistan and one Egyptian living in the the USA. A woman, Shirin Ebadi, is the only Nobel prize winner from Iran. She is a human rights activist speaking out for women and children. The world is populated with over 7 billion people of which there are about 76,923,300 living in Iran. About 98% follow Shi'a Islam..

Back in March 2013, an article was found on an Iranian website about Jewish use of sorcery and numerology. "the Jewish people think that ruling over man, nature and divine traditions can be achieved only by means of sorcery. ...Sorcery is known to be a practice in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran and the monotheistic religions disapprove. But Jewish mysticism regards it as a legitimate means to uncover the secrets of the holy book (Old Testament.)" This is what they are telling their people, that we are using witchcraft to this day.

In the same period, candidates in Iraqi elections reported using witchcraft. Witchcraft is the theme in Iran's weddings based on Harry Potter and fashions including pointy-toed boots and peaked hats. It looks like it's the rage in Iraq. As we in the USA have had our Egypt theme in jewelry and clothing, theirs is witchcraft.

People in this part of the world believe in genies. "However belief in genies (or jinn, as they are better known in the
Arabic world) is both serious and widespread. In his book "Legends of
the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar"
(Counterpoint Books, 2011), journalist Robert Lebling notes that "jinn
are taken seriously and regarded as real, tangible beings by a large
segment of the world's population.... They often appear humanoid or
even human but possess amazing powers we lack. They can change their shapes, can fly through the air, and even can render themselves invisible."

Ahmadinejad has accused 24 influencial Iranian clerics of using witchcraft and summoning genies . They are accused of being magicians. He thinks Abbas Ghaffari called up a genie which caused a heart attack of a man persecuting him.

Iran is doing something very dangerous, though. They are sending sophisticated and dangerous weapons to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon through Syria. Their goal in life is to destroy Israel. Who is the backer of the dictator, Assad in Syria? Iran is by sending weapons and fighters. Syria, has aligned itself with Iran, their big brother. Russia seems to be the big brother of Iran.

Israel won't use magic against you, Iran. They will use science and their own technology. Israel has done much for the world in the field of medicine. If you harm Israel, you will be harming a gift from G-d for the world. Wise up!

About Me

I'm the American Nadene Goldfoot. Another lives in England. I'm the one who went to Israel and lived there from 1980 to the end of 1985. I'm an amateur genealogist for our family who also has expanded interests into dna. I now spend my time writing in my 3 blogs teaching about Israel and defending her position.

On my tree I have found Rabbi Samson Wertheimer, RASHI, and King David through DNA testing. Another branch holds the kings and queens of England by genealogy. When current events become deplorable, I turn to this hobby for a lift. It's all whetted my appetite for ancient history of Israel.